Gov. Jerry Brown has tapped into widespread public distress over the sorry state of California schools and other public services, seemingly convincing voters, at least for now, that the only way out is to increase taxes. His tax proposal, likely headed for the November 2012 ballot, showed a stunning 65 percent support in the latest statewide poll. But it is sheer fantasy to think that his proposal is the right prescription for what ails California.

Despite signs of slow recovery elsewhere in the country, California remains an economic basket case. The official unemployment rate of 11.3 percent is far higher than the national rate of 8.6 percent, and some business experts say the real jobless rate in the state is pushing 20 percent if you count those no longer looking for work and the numbers of underemployed people. The housing market remains a mess, with prices down and foreclosure sales the biggest game in town. And companies are moving out of California in alarming numbers, attracted to the business-friendly policies of other states. Just last week, the governor of South Dakota reportedly spent time in Downtown San Diego and North County trying, with some success, to lure companies to his state with the promise of a better business climate.

To think that the fix for all of that is a regressive half-cent increase in the sales tax, which would hit the poor and middle class harder than the wealthy, along with a “tax the rich” increase in income taxes for individuals making more than $250,000, is simply wrongheaded.

The governor’s plan would make California even more susceptible to the boom-and-bust volatility that is a core problem with today’s tax structure. It would push even more companies out of California. It would do nothing to stimulate the growth needed to produce more revenue to pay our teachers and improve our schools, to maintain the quality of the university, college and community college systems, to keep the social safety net reasonably safe, to keep our roads and highways at a manageable level of chaos and to do all of the other things that people demand of their government.

Gerald Parsky, a Rancho Santa Fe businessman, former member and chairman of the UC Board of Regents and a former assistant secretary of the Treasury, said this to the U-T Editorial Board last week:

“You want to have a tax system that will help promote economic growth. ... This is an economy that is stuck and will remain stuck with too much debt and not enough incentives for economic growth. ... If Brown’s tax proposal goes through, do you think businesses and people are going to move to California?”

No, we don’t.

And Parsky’s words cannot be dismissed as merely the talking points of a doctrinaire Republican. Parsky is part of a group called the Think Long Committee for California that has studied the state’s ongoing financial crisis for a year and recently proposed reforms that would overhaul the tax system in ways that would stimulate the economy and pay down the state’s humongous debt while still generating more revenue overall for the government.

The Think Long proposals are built on the principles of eliminating the volatility of the current tax system; creating a simpler, flatter tax structure that retains some progressivity; that reflects the service economy of California; and that promotes growth and jobs.

The reforms would reduce personal and corporate tax rates, but eliminate most deductions. Sales taxes on goods would go down but would be expanded to tax all services except health care and education. Taxes on out-of-state businesses with operations in California would increase. The reforms would guarantee more money for colleges and universities and put more K-12 education money under the control of local school districts.

And the Think Long report was co-signed by high-powered Democrats such as former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, former Gov. Gray Davis and Laura Tyson, chair of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, not to mention a number of big-name private-sector leaders who are also Democrats, such as philanthropist Eli Broad and Google’s Eric Schmidt.

We hope the Think Long initiatives make the ballot as originally proposed and get the chance to compete alongside the Brown proposal next November. We are confident Californians will pick economic growth over continued stagnation.